Evil Summer: Babe Leopold, Dickie Loeb, and the Kidnap-Murder of Bobby Franks

by John Theodore

Overview

In 1924, fourteen-year-old Bobby Franks was abducted while walking home from school, killed by a chisel blow to his head, and later found stuffed in a culvert in a marshy wasteland at the Illinois-Indiana state line. Acid had been poured over his naked body. Evil Summer examines the shocking kidnapping and murder of Franks by two University of Chicago students, Nathan “Babe” Leopold and Richard “Dickie” Loeb, both from families of privilege.

In this new examination of the crime, author John Theodore takes readers into the minds of the two criminals as he focuses on three months in 1924. Theodore covers the killing, the confessions, the defense, and the sentencing surrounding the horrific murder, placing the killers’ actions and Clarence Darrow’s historic defense into the context of 1920s Chicago.

Theodore deftly investigates the psychological dimensions of the crime, revealing the murderers’ fantasies, relationships, sexuality, and motives. The author examines the killers’ past, outlining Loeb’s obsession with detective fiction and crime and his editorial on random killing—written at age nine—and Leopold’s nightly master-slave fantasies and fascination with Nietzsche.

Evil Summer, which includes twenty-three illustrations, meticulously traces the murder from inception to confession, including such details as the special-delivery ransom letter sent to Jacob Franks and the discovery of Leopold’s horn-rimmed eyeglasses lying on a railroad embankment near Bobby’s dead body. Theodore re-creates such scenes as the convergence of hundreds of people in front of the Franks home, Bobby’s body lying in a small white casket in the library, and Loeb being voyeuristically drawn to the home while Bobby’s classmates carry the casket to the hearse.

Worldwide press coverage reflected the public fascination with the case in what was then called “the trial of the century.” The story became a media circus: Chicago’s six daily newspapers battled vigorously for readers, two Daily News cub reporters became part of the story, and the Chicago Tribune carried a voting ballot asking readers whether radio station WGN should broadcast the courtroom spectacle. The changing drama was delivered to Chicagoans every morning and evening, and the public feasted on every press run.

More than a crime story, Evil Summer illuminates the dark side of American life in the 1920s, including the excesses of privileged youth, the troubled childhoods, the random victimization, the anti-Semitism, and the sexuality.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780809387496
Publisher:	Southern Illinois University Press
Publication date:	10/04/2007
Series:	Elmer H Johnson & Carol Holmes Johnson Series in Criminology
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	232
Sales rank:	604,059
File size:	7 MB

About the Author

John Theodore, a former reporter, editor, and television and radio producer, is the author of Baseball’s Natural: The Story of Eddie Waitkus.

Table of Contents

Contents Preface 00 Acknowledgments 00 Part One. Phantasies 1 Part Two. Realities 000 Part Three. Apologia 000 Part Four. Justice 000 Epilogue: Passages 000 Notes 000 Bibliography 000 Index 000

Editorial Reviews

In this gripping, informative page-turner, author John Theodore weaves the many threads of childhood fantasy, economic class, illicit desire, and the rise of popular culture into a novelistic tapestry that reveals Chicago, and America, at the height of the roaring twenties. The storytelling is rich and thrilling.”—Ted Anton, author of Eros, Magic, and the Murder of Professor Culianu

“John Theodore provides a narrative window in which to view the young minds of Babe Leopold and Dickie Loeb. This book will fascinate readers interested in the psychological makeup of the criminal mind.”—Larry L. Franklin, author of The Rita Nitz Story: A Life Without Parole

From the Publisher

Before there was a John Gacy and a Jeffrey Dahmer, there were Leopold and Loeb. Synonymous with malevolence and dread, their familiar names roll off our tongues, much like the titles of our favorite classic movies. In the 83 years since Nathan Leopold and Richard Loeb murdered their neighbor Bobby Franks for fun, the details of what became known as "the crime of the century" have grown fuzzy. Not to worry: John Theodore closes the time gap and refreshes our collective memories in Evil Summer. Theodore prefaces the narrative with his own childhood awareness of the two wealthy, privileged boys and details of their horrific deed, revealed to him in bits and pieces. The body of the book reads like a novel, set in the atmosphere of the affluent Hyde Park area where the boys lived and offers all sorts of revelations about the workings of their minds. It's a compelling story with a generous selection of photographs. The eerie epilogue includesthe fate of the killers, their shattered family members and the legend of the ghost of Clarence Darrow.

Chicago Life - Tamara Shaffer

Before there was a John Gacy and a Jeffrey Dahmer, there were Leopold and Loeb. Synonymous with malevolence and dread, their familiar names roll off our tongues, much like the titles of our favorite classic movies. In the 83 years since Nathan Leopold and Richard Loeb murdered their neighbor Bobby Franks for fun, the details of what became known as "the crime of the century" have grown fuzzy. Not to worry: John Theodore closes the time gap and refreshes our collective memories in Evil Summer. Theodore prefaces the narrative with his own childhood awareness of the two wealthy, privileged boys and details of their horrific deed, revealed to him in bits and pieces. The body of the book reads like a novel, set in the atmosphere of the affluent Hyde Park area where the boys lived and offers all sorts of revelations about the workings of their minds. It's a compelling story with a generous selection of photographs. The eerie epilogue includes the fate of the killers, their shattered family members and the legend of the ghost of Clarence Darrow.

— Tamara Shaffer

Chicago Life